Nublo Restaurant — Restaurant in Haro

Overall quality not on par with the prices.

The warm welcome with photos taken and visiting the kitchen was pretty awesome and raised the expectations in terms of things to come. We selected the Nublo menu with matching wines.

First wine was a Riojan sparkling wine. Not great, but ok. Unfortunately nobody told us that it would also be the matching wine for the three first courses. The wine portions served are extremely small, so we ended up finishing the wine before tasting through the courses. Not even tiny refills were offered for the sake of enjoying the food pairing.

Honestly, there is not much to say about the rest of the starter courses. Carefully prepared with beautiful presentation, but most of them were surprisingly modest in taste. The pigtail chips with herbs was delicious and unique, but it was more than one mouthful, so it was a bit difficult to eat. Having visited multiple Michelin star restaurants in Spain, I had high hopes for the fish course. Unfortunately the seabass was disappointing. Both the fish and the accompanying spinach were almost tasteless. At this point, we even had to ask for pepper and salt.

The sirloin dry aged in blue cheese would surely would have been the highlight of the dinner without the major hullaballoo with the matching wine. We were offered (once again just about one sip) prestigious Muga Aro 2010. The bottle was just ending, so all we got was a thick portion of sediment. It was unacceptable no matter how the sommelier suggested otherwise. They apparently were reluctant to open a new bottle, so they brought us Muga Reserva instead. In other words, instead of a top wine (that we paid for), we should settle for a household item. Unbelievable. Fortunately there was one attentive waiter that understood the situation and offered us yet another wine, this time a bit better quality.

One more thing that bothered us. The waiters seemed to rush things forward. The new plate was brought the second you finished the previous. No time to enjoy and reflect. It was also annoying that they switched off the lights from the tables as soon as the customers left. With all the hassle, we were the last ones to leave and by that time our table was the only one with light on, surrounded by seemingly impatient staff.

Perhaps it was just an unfortunate chain of events that happened to us, I sure hope it's not a common pattern. With this experience, I recommend spending your precious euros...

I had a wonderful lunch at Nublo. Upon arrival, we were kindly greeted and given a brief tour of the entry, cellar, kitchen, and main dining room before being seated. The kitchen was particularly of interest, as it uses wood as its base.

We ordered the Nublo experience menu, consisting of 16 dishes that were artfully crafted and continued to surprise. Some of my favorites included the frozen lime, the spinach pil pil and the pork sandwich. Each dish was explained by the waitress and presented beautifully, demonstrated a true mastery of the wood stove and “cocina económica”. We also enjoyed a bottle of wine from the extensive list.

Overall, the meal was great. The menu combined traditional flavors with masterful preparation. Perhaps I would have liked some of the dishes to be a bit more daring. The ambience was also a bit underwhelming and we found the dining room a bit hot, but perhaps in the evening the lights might add a more romantic air. I was also disappointed at the end to find that we were charged more than 4,50€ for water. It seemed...

Nublo was an intimate and excellent dining experience. We were taken into the kitchen to meet the chefs as they were preparing for service, and we had a chance to view the wood fired oven before we sat down. This was a very nice touch and allowed us to pay our respects to the chefs. The presentation of the dishes was simple yet elegant with a spotlight anchored from high above your table focusing the head of the lamp just above the plates. I have not experienced this type of table setting, and I liked it a lot. With the light shining below the faces of you and your table mate, the setting felt more intimate with no overhead light glaring on you. My favorite dish was probably the vineyard onion, or the ceviche-like dish served beautifully speared on a flower stem. 100% worth a trip to...